When you talk about the good ol' boys, it's not just about the guys driving pickup trucks or farming in the fields. It's also about the good ol' boys who make up the "boards" of industry.

Take Delta Air Lines for instance. Ex-CEO Ron Allen got the boot in 1997.

The boys then let him receive $500,000 a year for eight years as a consultant, a $765,600 pension starting in 1997, a lump-sum severance payment of $4,586,515, stock options, paid legal fees, an office for 10 years, free flights, a car and the list goes on.

I am not a shareholder in Delta, thank goodness, but if I were, I would be thinking of starting a class-action lawsuit against the Delta Board of Directors that existed in 1997. Yep, I'd go after those good ol' boys. Sure looks like to me that they take care of their own, doesn't it to you? They are not using their money to make up these lavish perks; they are using the shareholders' money.

Have you ever noticed that the boys usually serve on several boards? Are they really that smart or is it because the CEO who invites them in knows that they like to take care of the boss?

- Ron Shook

Norcross

Explore problems at home, not in space

NASA has attempted to reassure us that the space shuttle doesn't appear to have suffered any major damage and is expected to make a safe return to earth upon completion of its mission. I say attempted to reassure us because until it is on the ground there's going to be a lot of apprehension and nail biting at NASA headquarters and throughout the world.

I have always been an advocate of space exploration and take great pride in this country's boldness and commitment to gaining the utmost knowledge of our universe.

As of this moment we have yet to find any evidence of other life forms on other planets and we continue to explore our own origins in the overall scheme of things. But as is sometimes the case in worrisome times, we wonder if perhaps our efforts and our money would be better served to make life better for the people who live here on mother Earth. After all, of what possible importance can the continued exploration of dead planets and dying stars be to us in the here and now? There is so much to do and undo at home. Having said that, I know that we will continue to reach for the stars and try to attain the unattainable, because that is, for better or worse, what we are, arrogant, complacent, nosy and just plain cantankerous. We are human.